International Leader FIRST FINANCE Institute to Offer Upcoming MOOCs in Financial Analysis and Financial Markets

NEW YORK, January 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Massive Open Online Courses to be taught by award-winning Harvard Business School Professor Marc Bertoneche and CNBC personality and Hedge Fund veteran Stephen Weiss

FIRST FINANCE Institute today announced the launch of two upcoming Massive Open Online Courses in financial analysis and financial markets.

The five-week course, titled "Financial Analysis" will be taught by Harvard Business School's Marc Bertoneche, a 3-time winner of the prestigious Harvard Business School Faculty Award. Also five weeks, "Wall Street: Understanding Financial Markets" will be the first MOOC ever taught by a leading financial market practitioner, CNBC's Stephen Weiss. During the couse Stephen will offer his observations and lessons learned from more than 25 years on Wall Street.

The upcoming MOOCs in English are an outgrowth of FIRST FINANCE Institute's highly successful first MOOC in Financial Analysis. Taught in French by HEC Professor and former Managing Director at BNP Paribas, Pascal Quiry, the MOOC enrolled 10,000 students from 15 different countries and gained widespread coverage on TV, radio and print media. In addition the quality of the initial MOOC was evidenced by its course completion rate which was three times the industry average. According to FIRST FINANCE Institute CEO Eric Chardoillet: "It became clear early in our first MOOC that there is a large and growing audience for world-class, hands-on and practical finance content taught online for free. We are lucky to have found two great instructors in Marc and Steve who can introduce these concepts to a global audience."

More than 50,000 students are expected to sign up for our next series of MOOCs (which will be available in English, French and Chinese by the end of 2014).

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS is scheduled for Monday, February 10 and will run for five weeks until March 16, 2014. WALL STREET: UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL MARKETS will begin on February 24 and run for five weeks until March 30.

Registration in the courses is currently available on a global basis at http://www.firstbusinessmooc.org.

Both MOOCs will offer live weekly interaction with the professors through Web-based video platform Spreecast. Recognizing that students crave interactivity in their online learning experiences, FIRST FINANCE Institute partnered with Spreecast to bring live 45-minute Q&A sessions where the week's topics will be discussed and students can ask questions, either via chat or live on-screen. Said CEO Chardoillet, "We are proud to be the first MOOC provider to partner with Spreecast. After considerable research we determined that Spreecast was the best available platform to connect our instructors and students in a live, interactive format."

Courses offer the opportunity to obtain market-driven certifications. Students able to finish successfully the course will receive an attestation of success. In addition, both MOOCs serve as respective first steps to the completion of the Certificate in Corporate Finance Foundations (CFF) and Certificate in Corporate Finance Foundations (CFF). These certifications are used by both students and professionals to enhance their professional development, and by financial employers to better assess the knowledge level of their employees. (http://www.first-finance-institute.org)

Exams are offered on a worldwide basis at Pearson VUE centers: http://www.pearsonvue.com/firstfinance/contact/

Opportunities for corporations to support their employees' development. Both MOOCs offer an opportunity for employers to offer world-class courses to their employees without paying the costs of in-person training or buying a software subscription. For example, one of the world's largest Investment Banks, Societe Generale enrolled more than 80 employees of its employee in the most recent FFI MOOC.

To enroll visit http://www.firstbusinessmooc.org

About FIRST FINANCE Institute: FIRST FINANCE Institute (FFI) is leading online learning and financial certification company. A global organization with offices in NYC, Hong Kong, London and Paris, FFI has quickly developed a reputation for its practical, industry-driven MOOCs and its market-leading certifications in Capital Markets and Corporate Finance. FIRST FINANCE group has trained or certified more than 72,000 individuals since inception.

About Marc Bertonèche: Marc Bertonèche is a visiting professor of finance at the Harvard Business School. At Harvard he has won several awards for excellence and innovation in the classroom, and is a 3-time winner of the prestigious Harvard Business School's Faculty Award. Professor Bertoneche has also been a regular faculty member in finance at the University of Oxford, Said Business School and a distinguished visiting professor at HEC Paris. In addition, he has lead a large number of executive programs for global organizations and is a Director at several companies, including: Sun Hydraulics and Total Infrastructures Gaz France. He is the author or co-author of six books, two videos and more than fifty published articles on various financial topics. Professor Bertoneche holds a PhD from Northwestern University's Graduate School of Management and a Doctorate in Management from the University of Bordeaux, together with an MBA, a Master in Economics and a Master in Political Science.

About Stephen Weiss: Stephen L. Weiss is an active investor, markets expert, public speaker and author. A 25-year veteran of Wall Street, he has held senior management positions at Salomon Brothers, SAC Capital and Lehman Brothers, where he built Wall Street's #1 ranked sales force, in addition to co-founding a hedge fund. Weiss is a CNBC Contributor with a regular role on Fast Money Halftime Report. Weiss maintains strong relationships with some of the industry's most highly regarded investment managers. During his tenure in sales, he was responsible for developing investment ideas for Soros Funds, Tiger Management, SAC Capital, where he subsequently worked, Omega Advisors, Kingdon Capital as well as many mutual funds. His book The Billion Dollar Mistake: Learning the Art of Investing Through the Missteps of Legendary Investors (Wiley, 2010) has been translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese.

Copyright © 2013, FIRST FINANCE Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contact

Bertrand Serna; Head of Marketing; +33-01-44-53-75-83; bertrand.serna@first-finance.fr

Fabrice Demichel; Consultant; +33-(0)6-84-64-35-18; fdemichel@hotmail.fr